Newbie mom of 2 sons asking for help-

Parents Forum
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<p>Hi, I am new at this game......2 sons - one a Junior and one Freshman at an int'l school in Far East Asia. US citizens living abroad since older child was 4. </p>

<p>Would like for u parents out there mainly of sons to shed some light on finding a good undergrad program (prefers comfy climate) in CS/Math/business majors. Good at Math, good at taking tests but an underperformer at GPA.</p>

<p>Has his own web business and due to this wants to be near the action scene where he can intern and find mentors to succeeding in the web based world. So that means CA? but I am not closing down other options.</p>

<p>Curr GPA is 3.4 - challenging courses throughout. Would have loved to be at Harvery Mudd or Rice but those are far reaches. Would any of you shed some light on other schools with good support for kids who need motivation. LAC/state/private all good. No aid.</p>

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<p>He really wants to be in Silicon Valley as opposed to just CA. I would take a look at Santa Clara for starters. How high are the test scores?</p>

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<p>The University of Advancing Technology
Tempe, Arizona</p>

<p>It was mentioned in a CNN news story yesterday. They described it as complletely oriented to 21st century technology. Two students interviewed expressed great satisfaction, mentioning they felt they’d be equipped to work anywhere, They also lauded their school’s career center with exceptional connections to industry across the country. </p>

<p>It is beautiful and great climate around Tempe, AZ. </p>

<p>I am not recommending this school, but saying it bears further investigation. Good luck!</p>

<p>From their website:<br>

</p>

<p>Here’s their statement of “Who Gets Accepted”:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>and “How Can We Tell If UAT Is the Right Place For You?”</p>

<p>

</p>

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<p>UC Santa Cruz may be a good fit for him. Here is a link that you may find useful on some of their programs (including a fairly new major in CS - computer game design. [At</a> a Glance | Jack Baskin School of Engineering | UC Santa Cruz](<a href=“Baskin School of Engineering – Baskin Engineering provides unique educational opportunities, world-class research with an eye to social responsibility and diversity.”>Baskin School of Engineering – Baskin Engineering provides unique educational opportunities, world-class research with an eye to social responsibility and diversity.)</p>

<p>Santa Cruz to San Jose (the heart of Silicon Valley) is probably about a 30 minute drive. </p>

<p>Another school to consider is San Jose State.</p>

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<p>I sent you a PM. What kinds of test scores are you thinking are “lower”? That could make a difference in the types of schools your child might or might not want to consider looking at.</p>

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<p>San Diego State offers undergrad business and is in the right academic range. Comfy climate too.</p>

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<p>Being an American nat’l who has spent most of their life in foreign country…and doesn’t need FA…could be a “hook” at some places…so don’t completely rule out the reaches. Especially if he tests well and gets high scores on the Math portions of the SAT and ACT.</p>

<p>You are likely to get some good suggestions from parents here. If he wants warm would he consider the South Eastern US at all? UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke will probably also fall in the Super Reach category…NC State could be a match…but others on this site may know of smaller schools in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.</p>

<p>Schools not near so much action…and maybe with somewhat less motivational support than an smaller school…but possible matches/safety with good CS/Math and Business Depts…would include many of the Soutern flagship Univ (University of South Carolina, University of Alabama etc.)</p>

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<p><a href=“prefers%20comfy%20climate”>quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>“Comfy” depends on your tastes. You need to elaborate a bit. Heat? Dry? Humidity? Seasons? Snow?</p>

<p>Re scores, how high is high? Re GPA, do you have any idea how that translates into class rank? Is the international school operating on a British plan, AMerican plan, IB, et al?</p>

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<p>Could you provide a list of the courses that he’s taking now?</p>

<p>Does the business take up a lot of his time?</p>

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<p>USC [USC</a> - University of Southern California](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/)
has a very good UG Business program [ Marshall]
[USC</a> Marshall Undergraduate Programs](<a href=“Home - USC Marshall”>Home - USC Marshall)
and Computer science program[ offered through the Vertibi School of Engineering]
[USC</a> - Viterbi School of Engineering - Academic Departments](<a href=“http://viterbi.usc.edu/academics/departments/]USC”>http://viterbi.usc.edu/academics/departments/)
You can’t beat the weather, diversity and academic support USC students receive while they are students. And the Trojan Family network has members worldwide.</p>

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<p>Take a look at Babson College in Wellesley, MA right outside of Boston - lots of personal attention, beautiful campus, business-oriented, lots of foreign students, great recommendations. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Babson doesn’t fit the requirement of a comfy climate though.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all your replies - Here is some more detail - </p>

<p>He has taken the SAT’s in Jan and scored 2160 (M-790 CR-650). </p>

<p>An extremely motivated kid in th past - before our second last move which was when he went into 7th grade. So almost half of his MS and then HS he has been under performing but his teachers always saw his potential and put him in higher classes. Hence he has takes Honors courses throughout except in 9th grade where the head of Math dept took only 4 kids into the Alg2/trig class and he was the 5th in line! He was really upset I remember.</p>

<p>Since that time he stopped taking part in the Math Competitions which he so happily did before.</p>

<p>In his current school where he came into the 10th grade, the faculty tested him and put him back into where he should have been i.e pre-calc.</p>

<p>Right now as a junior he has taken the following AP’s
Eng Lang, Physics B, Macro, Micro and Calc AB.</p>

<p>He had very very tough teachers and has mostly B’s in all except Math he has A.
Next Year in Senior Year he has signed up for AP’s
Eng Lit, Phys C and Calc BC.</p>

<p>He loves the internet technology and has self taught several coding and graphing tools. He builds websites and then auctions them off. Bill Gates is his idol. Spends way way too much time on this. Minimal on studying. Uses Apple and loves it. His work has got written up in Tech Crunch which is a Tech Blog I guess.</p>

<p>We live in a hot tropical country right now and had a stint in between in Europe where it was rainy and dark 8 months a year. That absolutely did not suit any of my kids, hence my issue with proper climate. He would overlook that part if he got into say MIT but if it comes down to picking between 2 places that add up equally on East/West Coast he would prefer the west. </p>

<p>Thats the reason I thought about Rice, but then again will he be accepted there?
We have not ruled out milder places like SC…A friend mentioned Claremont Mckenna but again they accept over 4.0 GPA students.</p>

<p>Since he lacks motivation right now in HS to study I am afraid that unless he gets into a good program he will sort of repeat this same HS stint in Undergrad again! He can do well but just has to get interested. Right now he feels that we do not understand his passion and are trying to stop him from achieving success on his own!</p>

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<p>He sounds like more of a Harvey Mudd kid, than Claremont McKenna, but his GPA is going to be an issue at a lot of places. (My top 1% of the class kid was waitlisted at Harvey Mudd with a similar level of messing around on computers, and he was deferred and ultimately rejected from both MIT and Caltech, so I’d say those were both longshots.) It’s okay to apply to the longshots, but you’ll want some safer schools too. I’m not familiar enough with the UC system to make recommendations, but I don’t think it’s critical that he spend the school year in Silicon valley - my son who goes to Carnegie Mellon was flown out to his summer job and gets a housing stipend to work in CA this summer. I think he got an exceptionally good deal, but for a strong CS guy it’s certainly possible. When we were looking UC Irvine and one of the San Diego universities were mentioned to us as good for computer science as well as the obvious Berkeley. Ultimately we decided for out of state tuition it wasn’t worth it - particularly as my kid says he doesn’t like hot weather. All the safer engineering/CS type schools we looked at were closer to us - WPI, RPI were my son’s safeties - and I’d guess matches for your son.</p>

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<p>Santa Clara has a great business program, program in business in technology, and is in the heart of Silicon Valley, where many students have internships.</p>

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<p>pixel, we are also Americans living in tropical Asia. Who knows, we may even be in the same country? My son graduated from an international school 6 years ago so his experience may not be 100% parallel to your son’s next year; however, I think some of the basic premises apply.</p>

<p>First, the life experience gained as an expatriateis a BIG plus in admissions. Your son should think about how he can weave this experience into his applications – in his essays, recommendations, resume etc. Expat kids, especially from developing countries, are the best of both worlds for colleges: they get kids who bring global perspective to the campus community, without language and visa issues. Colleges often use third culture kids to increase their diversity percentages – the statistics shows a student from Botswana, even though s/he may be as American as apple pie. </p>

<p>The fact that you are a full paying customer is also a plus at many colleges, again, especially in today’s economy. This should allow your son to choose an early decision school which may also give him a boost in admissions.</p>

<p>CS/business is not my area of expertise so I’m not going to give you specific recommendation; however I wouldn’t underestimate the potential of this kid, just because his GPA reflects more B’s than A’s. Perhaps his counselor could enlarge on how your family has moved repeatedly over the years which may have affected his GPA. </p>

<p>He sounds like a unique case that’s going to need some unique handling. If his highschool has a good college counseling department, talk to them. If they don’t you’ve come to the right place for ideas.</p>

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<p>Your son might like the story here of a young guy that was involved in the web. He was accepted to Stanford and attended but didn’t do that well and he’s on a leave of absence from the school.</p>

<p>[Blake</a> Ross - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross]Blake”>Blake Ross - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>The story of Marco Boerries is another of a very young guy starting out in the software business.</p>

<p>One thing about the CS major is that it’s pretty tough and you have to have a lot of drive and interest to get through the sheer volume of work. A lot of CS is programming but it’s also hardware and mathematics and some are turned off by those aspects of the major.</p>

<p>When someone mentions that they want to major in CS with a business slant, I suggest the Computer Information Systems major which is something in-between.</p>

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<p>You might want to look at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus. Pick one of the degrees, and you can take classes in the other areas.</p>

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<p>Leaving climate issues aside, in the Boston area, Babson specializes in entrepreneurship, which would likely suit him to a T. Olin is a new, highly-selective, project-oriented tech school. I don’t know what their admissions policy is like, but I think it’s one of those schools that is a reach for everyone. Your son’s web projects and math skills might appeal to them. Northeastern is a school known for its co-op program, where students incorporate work/internships into their studies, which might appeal to him. I know a couple of highly capable kids, one of whom sounds a bit like yours–high SAT, less-strong GPA, independent studies in computer programming–who are there now. (The one like yours was denied at Olin and MIT. Northeastern might be an interesting safety for your son.) The Boston area has a substantial tech industry presence, largely due to MIT grads starting companies. It’s also a great place to go to school.</p>

<p>I don’t know where you were in Europe, but according to German and Swiss exchange students I’ve known some parts of Germany and Switzerland are “dark and rainy” all winter, while in New England it gets colder and there is snow, but there is substantially more sun. (For snow and a LOT more sun, see Colorado.) I know that the cold winters are a shock for those accustomed to tropic heat and humidity, just as the reverse is true for us. :)</p>